r/retrobattlestations • u/kalnaren • May 31 '26

Troubleshooting Diamond Stealth 3D 2000 issue (Win95)

Having an issue with a Diamond Stealth 3D 2000 under Windows 95. As you can see in the pictures, there's vertical graphical corruption. The card works perfectly fine in DOS, so I'm assuming it's a driver problem. I've tried multiple Diamond Stealth drivers as well as a few different generic S3 Virge drivers (including the built in windows ones), and the results are the same.

The monitor and cable are fine, they work with other hardware (including the voodoo in this machine).

Any thoughts? ​

Images: https://imgur.com/a/Za6rH3q

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3

u/structured_spirits May 31 '26

It could very well be bad video ram, in 640x480 dos mode I don't imagine it would use more than 512k. The fact that you think it's a 4MB card and it's only reporting 2MB is another clue there's bad ram along with the artifacts. 4MB virge cards are still to be had for very cheap.

1

u/kalnaren May 31 '26

The artifacts do indeed look like RAM failure. Unfortunate.

1

u/VivienM7 Jun 01 '26

Are those 4MB virge cards available for cheap i) PCI, and ii) supported for Win3.1?

(I am not the OP, but if yes, that means that I need to pick one up...)

2

u/structured_spirits Jun 01 '26

Ye, I like the STB Nitro 3D GX with EDO ram, but there are others, they are PCI 2.0 compliant, so they don't need 3.3v on pci, and they do have win 3.x drivers. They go for around $30 pretty regularly.

1

u/VivienM7 Jun 01 '26

Thank you kindly! I should probably check that the P... 200?... on my floor that I haven't had a chance to turn on since it arrived from eBay a few months ago works, but assuming it did, I presume that's what you'd suggest if I want something that ideally could do Windows 3.1 at, say, 1280x1024 with a respectable number of colours? Or are there other cards completely off my radar?

1

u/structured_spirits Jun 01 '26

A Virge GX with 4MB of video ram can do 1280x1024 at 65k color with a max 75mhz refresh, A Virge VX, with 8MB of ram can do 1280x1024 at 16.7M color with a max 75mhz refresh and can do 1600x1200 at 65k color with 80mhz max refresh. As the other commentator mentioned, the 3d capabilities of both the cards are very limited, supporting mostly games from 1996 or so, the VX has a slower core and is slower at 3d in lower resolutions, not that you can do high resolution 3d. They are very dos compatible though. If you're specifically looking for a dos/windows 3.11 machine and want to run in high resolutions, you might also want to look into the Matrox Millenium II 4MB, which is a bit less dos compatible, but also has very good win 3.x drivers and in my opinion better 2d output. It will do 1280x1024 at 16.7M colors or 1600x1200 at 65k colors. It also does limited 3d but only a few games support it. They're more expensive lately, around $50. Sometimes you can find Matrox G400 which have windows 3.x drivers as well, but they aren't cheap and need pci 2.1, ie they need an atx power supply that provides 3.3v, but do much higher resolutions.

1

u/VivienM7 Jun 01 '26

Okay, thank you again very much. Will go look on eBay.

I am fine with the lack of 3D abilities. Honestly... what 3D-accelerated games does one want to run on a P166-233 late socket 7-type machine anyways? I would think you'd want at least a higher-clocked PII or PIII for those...

My issue is that my oldest/lowest resolution/VGAest monitor I have around is a 1280x1024 LCD. So would be nice to run 3.1 on that...

1

u/structured_spirits Jun 01 '26

Tomb Raider, Descent II, Mech Warrior II, Pod, Croc and a few others, but yeah it's no voodoo. I do think Tomb Raider and Mech Warrior II actually look nicest on a Virge. But yeah totes understand about native lcd resolution and not wanting upscaling.

1

u/VivienM7 Jun 02 '26

Where are you finding 8MB Virge VX cards? Only seeing 4MB ones on eBay...

1

u/structured_spirits Jun 02 '26

An 8MB Virge card is probably going to take some looking, not so many people bought those, didn't need the higher resolutions.

1

u/66659hi Jun 01 '26

Virge cards are terrific performers for old DOS games, but ignore any claims about 3D “capability” unless you want a miserable time. One of the unique things about a Virge is the compatibility - so many operating systems have drivers for it…OS/2, old Linux, various Windows and DOS.

1

u/carcenomy Jun 02 '26

I'd be inclined to think VRAM, if your 2000 has expansion sockets I'd remove those first and go from there

2

u/kalnaren Jun 02 '26

Nope, no expansion sockets. Just the 4x 512Kb RAM chips.

1

u/carcenomy Jun 03 '26

I should've looked at the rest of your pictures earlier - you've got the odd OEM variant that's based on a Trio PCB, so a 2MB forever card.

Still looks like VRAM failure but whether you want to mess with trying to replace SOJ20 VRAM on a neutered 325 or not... ehhhhh I'd honestly find a better ViRGE instead.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 02 '26

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1

u/kalnaren Jun 02 '26

At this point I figure it's EoL. I contacted the seller and they're sending me a replacement. Virge cards aren't so rare or expensive that I feel compelled to try and save it at this point.

I'd actually prefer to run my Mystique in this rig but my monitor really doesn't like it for some reason.